Today's network servers, such as web servers, utilized for internet applications, can serve hundreds of requests every second. Each of the requests is typically associated with a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection, which is active until the request is completed. A client typically establishes a connection to a server and issues a request. The server then processes the request, returns a response, and closes the connection. Unlike traditional network applications, such as telnet or ftp, the web requests are usually active only for a short period of time, e.g., for acquiring a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) home page. Therefore, a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connection in a web server environment will be active only for a very short period of time in most cases, typically on the order of microseconds.
When a server closes a TCP connection, it is required to keep information about that connection for a period of time, typically four minutes, in case a delayed packet is found and sabotages a new incarnation of the connection. The server will leave some resources typically allocated for every single connection closed in the past four minutes. On a busy server, this can become a serious resource problem--hundreds of thousands of control blocks may need to be set aside until a four-minute TIME.sub.-- WAIT expires, which can cause not only resource under-utilization but also the contention for the limited resources. Accordingly, what is needed is an improved method and system for utilizing these resources. The present invention addresses such a need.